Copyright 2009 BOSMA Enterprises Chapter 24 Email Email is a way for you to write short messages to friends, to businesses, to schools, or whoever you need to communicate with. It is much like sending a letter through the mail, but the difference is, it is free, and it is instant. More-an-more businesses are using email to talk to their customers. Your bank might send you an email once a month to tell you that your online bank account ledger is ready to view. A utility might send you an email telling you that it is time to pay your phone bill. A friend might send you a picture attached to an email, or maybe their recipe for making a pizza. You can read an email, and then instantly reply back to the person who sent it. You can write one email that you send to a group of people. Maybe you are in a book club and want to send all of the members of the club information on a new book that just went on sale, or maybe you want to tell your family about something your child accomplished at school. The uses for and the possibilities for email are infinite. If you can connect to the internet from your home, you have an internet service provider. Each provider offers their customers a free email address. If you receive services from Comcast, your email will by the name you pick, the print at (@) sign (shift 2), and Comcast.net yourname@comcast.net. If you use AT&T, your email address will be the name you pick, the print at (@) sign (shift 2), sbcglobal.net yourname@sbcglobal.net. Other service providers will offer you your very own email address. Instead of walking through the steps to set up email for each service provider, we are going to look at a free email service called Gmail. Gmail is good because it is easy, you can have a free account, even if you do not receive a home based internet service, and you can access it from any computer that is connected to the internet. For example, if you do not have home service, you can access your Gmail account from your school or local library. Another aspect of email that you can use with Gmail from your home computer is called Thunderbird. This is an overlay that makes it possible for you to instantly access your email without going onto the www.gmail.com web site. It pulls information from the web site and places in an easy to-use program on your computer. Thunderbird can be downloaded from the www.mozilla.org web site. In the past, before Windows 7, you
could have the free Outlook Express by Microsoft this is no longer true. Now, with Windows 7, you have to sign up for a service called Live Mail. If you are using Windows XP, or older, you do still have the free Outlook Express program.
Gmail Setting up Your Free Gmail Email Account Press and hold down the Windows/Start Key and tap the letter r. Release these two (2) keys. Type www.gmail.com and then tap the Enter Key one time. You will be taken to the opening page for Gmail. On this page, you can sign in to your email account, if you already have one. If you do not have a Gmail email account, there is a link called Create an account. Move to this link and tap the spacebar one time. If you already have a Gmail account, login to access your email. We are going to pretend that you do not have a Gmail account and are going to sign up for one. Screenshot of opening screen of www.gmail.com. This web page has a username and password edit box (form field), and a Sign in button. Below this area is the link called Create an account.
You have tapped the spacebar on the link for Create an account. A new screen comes up. This is form, with a number of items, including form fields (edit boxes), buttons. And a Captcha. At the very top of this form is a form field for First Name. Screenshot of top of Gmail form for creating a Gmail email account.
Type your first name and then tap the Tab Key one time. The next form field is Last Name. Type you last name and then tap the Tab key one time. You are now on the Desired Login Name form field. Only type the name you want for your email do not type @gmail.com. The @gmail.com will be automatically put in for you. Screenshot of sample First name student, Last name class, and Desired Login Name studentclass.
Move to the check availability! button and tap the spacebar one time. The screen will refresh, and you will be notified if your email name already exists, or if you can use the name you have typed in. If the email name you typed does already exist, you cannot use it, unless it already belongs to you. Gmail will offer you a number of alternative email names that you can use. If you do not care for any of these names, Shift Tab back to the Desired Login Name and try another name. In the case of the Desired Login Name studentclass, one already exists and does not belong to the author. If you are using the JAWS screenreader, tap the spacebar on the check availability! button, and then down arrow to see if your Username is available or rejected. If it is rejected, tap the letter r to move to the first radio button. If you do not like what you hear, tap the letter r to move to the next radio button. If none of the choices pleases you, Shift Tab backward to the Desired Login Name and type in a different name remember, do not add the @gmail.com extension because this is done automatically for you. If you are using the WinEyes screenreader, press Control and Shift together (hold them down), and tap the letter a to go out of MSAA Mode. Down arrow to hear if your Username is accepted or rejected. Tap the down arrow key to move through the radio buttons, if you are given choices the letter r for radio button does not work with the WinEyes screenreader. If you are using the NVDA screenreader, Shift Tab back to the Desired Login Name form field, Tab to the check arability! button, and then down arrow to hear whether you have been rejected or accepted. If you have been rejected, you can down arrow through the radio buttons. To move to the suggested replacement login names, you can tap the letter r to move to the first radio button this is where the first suggested name is located. You can Tab through the suggestions, or tap the letter r to move through the suggestions, and tap the spacebar one time to check on of these, if you want to use it as your login and email name. If you do not care for any of the suggestions, Shift Tab back to the Desired Login Name form field, and try again. If you are using the www.satogo.com screenreader, you will be told if your Username is accepted or rejected after you tap the spacebar on check availability! You can use Tab, Shift Tab, r, just as you would with other screenreaders to move around this area of the Gmail form. Note: Gmail, just like many other sites, can change over time. You may have to use your knowledge of web page navigation to successfully use this create an account Gmail form.
Screenshot of Desired Login Name studentclass being rejected and alternatives being given.
Pretend you did not like the choices given in the Gmail radio buttons. Press and hold down the Shift Key and tap the Tab Key until you are back in the Desired Login Name edit box (form field). Type a different Username. In our example, studentclass was not available, therefore, a new name is tried. In our example the new name is studentclass.class (without the quotes). After the original studentclass a period was written, followed by the word class a second time. Gmail accepted this Username, and we are able to tab to the next box where we create a password for our account. This password has to be at least eight (8) characters long, and can be a combination of letters and numbers. Make sure you write down your Username and Password so that you can refer to it if you need to. The password can be what you want it to be, as long as it has eight or more characters. After you type your password the first time, Tab to the next edit box and type it again in the Re-enter password edit box. You will notice that your screenreader will say something like star each time you type a character. On the screen a series of dots appear. This is to protect you so that no other person hears what your email password is do not share your email password with other people! Screenshot of sample Password in the edit boxes (form fields) for Password, for the studentclass.class@gmail.com email account.
After the password is written and confirmed you will encounter three (3) checkboxes. The first checkbox says Stay signed in. The second checkbox says Enable Web History, and the third checkbox says Set Google as my default homepage. These are all three checked. You can un-check any one of them by tapping the spacebar. You can use Tab and Shift Tab to move through these checkboxes. Leaving these three checked will automatically log you in to your Gmail account when you go to www.gmail.com, will keep a history of your web use, and will make Google the web page that automatically comes up when you go to the internet, using the Internet icon, or menu item. Screenshot of Stay signed in, Enable Web History, and Set Google as my default homepage check boxes all checked.
After the three checkboxes you will come to a combo box that says Security Question. You can down arrow through the choices, or press and hold down the Alt Key and tap the down arrow key to list the choices, and then down arrow to see what choices are there. In our example, Alt down arrow was used, and we down arrowed to Write my own question. Screenshot of Security Question combo box with the list dropped down, and the item Write my own question highlighted.
After the list item in the Security Question combo box is highlighted, tap the Tab Key one time to move to the edit box (form field) just below the combo box. If you have picked Write my own question, write your question here. You are using this question and answer feature of Gmail in case you forget your password. Gmail has a link on the opening login page that says something like Forgot your password. If you click this link, the question you selected or wrote will be asked, and you will be required to write the answer exactly as you have written it on this form. Just under the edit box where you write your question is a link that says Learn More. If you want to know more about the question process and how it works, Tab one time from the edit box to the link and tap the Enter Key one time. Screenshot of question written out, with some omission of words.
Tap to the next edit box (form field) and type your answer. Remember, if you have to use the question and answer feature of Gmail, you will have to write your answer exactly as you have written it in this form field. Screenshot of sample answer: The same says Write your answer here. In your case, write your own unique answer.
The next edit box that you Tab to will say Secondary Email. If you have another email account with any service provider, you can type that email address here. This is a good idea for confirmation of email account, and in case you do forget your password your password will be email to you. Screenshot of same Secondary email edit box filled out.
After the Secondary email edit box, you will tap to the Location combo box. This is already set to United States. If you do live in another country, you can tap the first letter of the name of your country until you hear it, down arrow until you hear it, or press and hold down the Alt Key and tap the down arrow key to list the countries, down arrow until you hear your country, and then Tab to the next Gmail form item. The next box may be difficult. It is a Captcha box. Remember from an earlier chapter that a Captcha box is a string of graphical letters and numbers that a screenreader will not read. At this point you have a choice. Either get a person who has vision to read the Captcha box to you so that you can type in the information, or Tab one more time to the graphical symbol for Handicapped and tap Enter one time to listen to the Captcha. Screenshot of Gmail Captcha box filled out.
After you fill out the Captcha box, Tab through a number of links that you can explore if you wish. There will be a Terms of Service box which details your use of Gmail. Finally, you will come to a button that is labeled I accept. Create my account. If you tap the spacebar on this button you create your account, and you agree to the terms of use set forth by Gmail. Note: If there are any problems with your form, such as an incorrect Captcha, the form will re-appear with the item(s) marked in red. You may wish to have help from a sighted person if this occurs. You can, if you do not have access to someone with vision, go back through the form and try to determine or figure out which item(s) need correction. If you are taken back to the form, and the Captcha box is the issue, you will be placed in the first box where you need to designate your password. You will have to re-type your password, Tab one time, confirm your password by typing it a second time, and then Tab back down to the Captcha box. Screenshot of the I accept. Create my account button.
After you tap the spacebar to create your Gmail account a box will come up. This box is titled Add or Change Homepage, and has two (2) radio buttons, and a Yes button, and a No button. The first radio button says Use this web page as your only homepage. The second radio button says Add this web page to your homepage tabs. If you select the first radio button, every time you go to the internet, your Gmail account will come up, on the computer on which you are creating the Gmail account. If you select the second radio button, Gmail will be one of tabs available when you start the internet on your computer. These settings are not in effect if you go to the local library, or a friend s house to use your Gmail; they are only present on the computer you used to create the Gmail account. You other option is to Tab to the No button, or press Alt n for No. Screenshot of the Add or Change Homepage box.
When your form is correct, and you have made your choice on the pop up box after tapping the spacebar on the Create account button, a web page will come up. This page congratulates you for creating your new email account. There is a button which says Show me my account. Move to this button and tap the spacebar to go into your new Gmail email account. Screenshot of the Gmail Congratulations screen.
After tapping the spacebar on the Show me my account your Gmail email web page will come up. There are many items on this web page. Two of the most important items in the beginning are the Compose Mail link, and the table where all emails which have been sent to you are located. To get to the Compose Mail link, you can Tab to it, bring up the links list and move to it, or even use the Control f (find) command to search and be placed on it. The table can generally be moved to by tapping the letter t. Once you are at this email table, you can use the key commands for your screenreader to move through the table and see what emails are there. There are buttons, links, edit boxes, a table, and spry type menu buttons on this web page. Note: A spry by button, when activated with the spacebar, drops down a menu type list. Before seriously using the Gmail page, you will want to thoroughly explore what is there, using your screenreader key commands. Screenshot of opening page of Gmail email account.
If you are only going to access your email on your computer, using an overlay such as Mozilla Thunderbird, or even Outlook is fine. If you are going to use the local library, or a friend s computer, you need to learn the Gmail web site. Logging into Your Gmail Account Press and hold down the Windows Key and tap the letter r. If you are using Windows Vista or Windows 7 without modifications, you can simply tap the Windows/Start Key one time. Type www.gmail.com. Tap the Enter Key one time. If you are on the computer at the library or a friend s computer, the Gmail login screen will come up. Move to the Username edit box and type your username. Do not type the @gmail.com extension. Tab one time. Type you password. When you Tab again you will hear Stay signed in as a checkbox item. Do not check this box if you are on the library computer or a friend s computer it you do check it, other people will be able to get into your email account. Tab to the Sign in button and tap the spacebar one time. Your Gmail email account page will open. Screenshot of the Gmail login screen, with Username and Password typed in.
When you arrive at the first page of your Gmail account it will be the Inbox. The Inbox is where all of your new, and even old emails are located. If you are using a screenreader, you might be able to move around this page with difficulty. There is a link called basic HTML that you will want to click. Using basic HTML as a way to view the Inbox page of Gmail makes each email a link that you can tap the Enter Key on in order to open it without turning on the basic HTML feature, the email will not open when you tap the Enter Key on the link. Use your screenreader key commands to move to the basic HTML link, and then tap the Enter Key one time on this link the web page is automatically changed to basic HTML. You will want to make basic HTML a feature that always comes up when you login to your Gmail account. To do this, move to the link Set basic HTML as default view and tap the Enter Key one time. Now, each time you login to your Gmail account, the page will automatically be in the basic HTML view. If you log out of your Gmail account and re-open it, and the basic HTML is not turned on, simply move to the basic HTML link and tap the Enter Key one time to turn it back on. Screenshot of basic HTML feature turned on in a Gmail account.
Opening and Reading an Email There are many web related items on the Gmail opening page. There are buttons, links, an edit box (form field), a checkbox at the left of each email you receive, and a table in which all of your received emails are located. You can use your screenreader key to move to the table JAWS users will tap the letter t until column one, row one, checkbox not checked is heard. When the preceding is heard, you are in the table where your emails are located. Tap the Tab Key one time and you will be on the newest email, at the top of the email list. Tap the Enter Key one time to open this email. If you do not want to use the table to move to your emails, you can bring up a links list, move down to what you believe to be your email, and tap the Enter Key on any of them to open them. Screenshot of the first email at the top of the email list, opened.
When you open your email, not only will the text of the email be on the computer screen, all of the other links, combo boxes, buttons, etc. will be there also. There are a number of ways to move to the text of your email quickly. We will use the JAWS screenreader to demonstrate several methods of moving to and reading the email. Gmail uses headers on the page where the email opens. To move quickly through the headers to get to the email text, tap the letter h until you hear what you believe to be the informational area, just above the actual email. Press and hold down the Insert Key and tap the down arrow key one time release these keys. The information covering who sent the email, who the email was sent to, and a number of links will be read, and then the text of the email will be read. If you do not car who sent the email, tap the letter n several times and you will hear the top line of the email. Press and hold down the Insert Key and tap the down arrow key one time release these keys. Your email will be read to you. If you are reading an email where you want to read an item letter-by-letter, press and hold down the Control Key and tap the right arrow (if you need to move forward through the email) until you hear the beginning of the item maybe you want to carefully read the characters in an email address, account number, or some other item. To move forward through the item, character-by-character, tap the right arrow key again-andagain. If you are using the JAWS screenreader and you come upon a letter you cannot understand, tap the 5 Key on the Num Pad two (2) times quickly a phonetic pronunciation will be given for that letter. Remember to tap the 5 Key one more time to turn off phonetic pronunciation. If you need a word spelled out loud, press and hold down the 0 (zero) Key on the Num Pad and tap the 5 Key two (2) times quickly. The word you are on will be spelled out. Remember to press and hold down the 0 (zero) Key and tap the 5 Key one more time to turn off the spelling feature of JAWS. You can also use the Control Page Up key combination to move to the top of the email, and the Control Page Down key combination to move to the bottom of the email.
Opening and Reading an Attachment There will be times when you receive an email with an attachment. The attachment might be a picture, audio file, or a document. We will now open an email, and then an attachment on that email that is a WordPad document. Let s say you just opened an email that has an attachment. You read the email, and now want to open and read the attachment. Depending on your screenreader, will depend on whether you are told from the very start if there is an attachment--the JAWS screenreader will sometimes say One attachment on this email. You will know, if you do a read-all command that there is an attachment, because at the very bottom of the email there will be two links if you are in basic HTML mode. One link says View as HTML, and the other says Download. If you are not in basic HTML mode, there will be a third link that says Open as Google document. Screenshot of the three links at the bottom of an open Gmail email indicating there is an attachment.
Move to and tap the Enter Key on the View as HTML to open and read the attachment. Remember, this is a link, so use your screenreader commands for links, or Tab to move forward to the link, or Shift Tab to move backward to the link. When the attachment is open, there will be a bar that says If there are images in this attachment, they will not be displayed. Following this information there will be a link that says Download the original attachment. Just under this sentence and link is the text of the attachment. Read it and then decide if you want to save, or to close the attachment without saving. Press Alf F4 to close the attachment without saving it. Screenshot of open attachment in HTML view.
Saving an Attachment If you decide to save the attachment, tap the Enter Key one time on the Download link. A File Download box will come up with three buttons. These buttons are, from left to right, Open, Save, Cancel. Move to the Save button and tap the spacebar one time. Screenshot of File Download box with Open, Save, Cancel buttons.
In Windows 7 you will hear or see your Windows File Explorer come up. Move to the Tree View, down arrow to the drive where you want to save the attachment, right arrow one time, down arrow to the folder, tap Enter one time, Tab one time, and tap the Enter Key one time. The attachment will be saved. Screenshot of Windows 7 Windows File Explorer that comes up when you decide to save download or Save the attachment.
In Windows XP you will hear or see the Save As dialogue box. Press and hold down the Alt Key and tap the letter i. Down arrow to the drive where you want to save the email. Tap the Tab Key three times. Down arrow to the folder you want and tap the Enter Key one time. Press and hold down the Alt Key and tap the letter s one time to save the attachment on the drive and in the folder you have picked. Screenshot of the Windows XP Save As dialogue box that comes up when you decide to download or Save the attachment.
Replying to an Email You have read your new email and now have a number of choices to pick from. You can move to the Delete button and tap the spacebar one time to delete this email. You can archive it, or leave it on the list of emails in the inbox. Another thing you can do is to reply to the email. Maybe a friend sent you an email asking you a question. You read the email and want to reply back to your friend with the answer. If you are using the JAWS screenreader, tap the letter e one time. You will hear the word edit. Tap the Enter Key one (1) time to go into Forms Mode. Type your reply or answer to your friend s question. Tap the Tab Key one time. You will be on the Send button. Tap the spacebar one time and your reply will be sent to your friend. Screenshot of Reply box with text, just above the Send button.
Another way to reply to an email is to press and hold down the Alt Key and tap the letter r and then release these two keys. You will be placed in a Reply email form, much like the form you will use when you learn to create a new email to another person, or group of people. Your cursor is in the To edit box. This box will contain the email address of the person who sent you the email you are replying to. You can add other email addresses at this point, if you want your reply to go to the original sender and others. If you do want to add other email addresses in this edit box, tap the ; (semicolon) Key one time, the spacebar one time, and then write the next email address. When you are finished with the To edit box, tap the Tab Key one time. You are now in the Cc (carbon copy) edit box. If there are email addresses you want to carbon copy your reply to, but not make them main recipients, you can type their email addresses here. If you do this, all of the people who receive your reply will be able to see all of the email addresses you have sent the email to. Tap the Tab Key one time and you will be in the Bcc (blind carbon copy) edit box. Write email addresses in this edit box that you do not want the rest of the group to see, when they receive your reply. Tap the Tab Key one time and you will be on the Subject edit box. This box is already filled in with the text of the header for the original email. You can change the text, or add to the text, if you wish. Tap the Tab Key one time and you will be in the Attachments edit box. If you have a file such as a document or picture that you want to attach to this email so that the people who receive the email can look at it, type the name here, if you know it. If you do not know the exact name of the file you want to attach to the email, tap the Tab Key one time and you will be on the Browse button. Tap the spacebar on the Browse button and your Windows File Explorer will appear. Move to the Tree View, then to the drive you have the file on. Tap the right arrow key one time to open the drive, and then down arrow to the folder where the file is located. Tap the Enter Key one (1) time on the folder, and then tap the Tab Key one (1) time to move into the List View where all of the files in the folder are located. Down arrow to, or tap the first letter of the name of the file, until you hear or see it, and then Tab to the Open button. Tap the spacebar on the Open button and the file will be attached to the email.
Screenshot of attaching a file to a reply email.
Tab one time and you will be on the Attach More Files button. If you want to attach more files to the email, tap the spacebar one time and a list of ten (10) edit boxes and Browse buttons will appear. Either type the file name in an edit box, or use the Browse button as we did above to select more files to attach. You will seldom attach a file to a reply email, but it is good to know how just in case you need to do this. Usually, you will attach files when you newly create an email. Screenshot of ten (10) Attach File edit boxes and Browse buttons. Tap the Tab Key one time and you will be in the area where you type your reply to the original email. Press and hold down the Control Key and tap the Home Key to make sure you are at the top of the email writing area. Type your reply this method assures that what you type is at the beginning of the email the receiver will read, and not in the middle or at the bottom. Tap the Tab Key one (1) time and you will be on the Send button. Tap the spacebar one time to send the email.
Screenshot of the Send button area of the reply email.
If you have read an email and do not want to reply to it or keep it, move to the Delete button and tap the spacebar one time to delete it. If you do not want to reply to the email or delete it, and want to return to the Inbox where your other emails are located, move to the link called Back to Inbox, and tap the Enter Key one time. You will be taken back to your Inbox, and will be ready to move to the next email on the list.
Create an Email You are on the main page of your Gmail email account. You decide you want to write an email to a friend. There is a link called Compose Mail. Move to this link and tap the Enter Key one (1) time. You will be placed at the top of a blank email form, in the To edit box. Type the email address of the friend you are writing to. Tab through the fields that follow the To field and you will find they are just like the fields that were taught in the Reply section above (earlier in this chapter). There will be a Cc field, a Bcc field, a Subject field, an Attachments edit box, a Browse button, an Attach More Files button, an area to type your message in, a Send button, a Draft button, and a Discard button. If you write the email and decide that you do not want to send or save it as a draft, you can tap the spacebar on the Discard button and it will be gone. If you write the email, then decided that you want to do more work on it at a later time, and not send it now, tap the spacebar on the Save Draft button. The email will not be sent, but will be saved in the Drafts section of Gmail, and can be accessed by tapping the Enter Key one time on the Drafts link. You can go into the Drafts area later, open the email, do more work on it, save it back into drafts, delete it, or send it. Screenshot of blank email form in Gmail.
Gmail Folders or Labels In Windows File Explorer you learned to create folders and to save files into those folders. Gmail has a very similar setup. Instead of calling the organized areas Folders as is the case with Windows File Explorer, Gmail refers to these areas as Labels. There are four (4) pre-made Labels called Personal, Receipts, Travel and Work. You can add your own Labels by moving to the Edit Labels link and tapping the Enter Key one time. When you place a Label on an email, that email will continue to be shown in the Inbox, and will also be shown in the area under the Label you gave it. Therefore, if you delete an email in the Inbox that has a Label, that email will also be deleted in the area under the Label you gave it. Screenshot of the Labels area, and the Edit Labels link on the Gmail main page.
Placing a Label on an Email Either tap the spacebar on the checkbox to the left of the email you want to Label, or open the email. Move to the More Actions combo box. Press the Alt down arrow key combination to open or drop down the list of choices. Tap the down arrow until you hear the Label you want for your marked or open email. Tap the Tab Key one time and you will be on the Go button. Tap the spacebar one time and that Label will be applied to your email you will still be able to see this email in your Inbox, and you will be able to see it in the Label area. Note: If you have put a Label on an email and want to put a different Label on the email, use the More Actions combo box to unmark the email. On the More Actions combo box list there is an area at the top of the list for Mark as read, Mark as unread, Add star, Remove star, Mute ; next is the Apply label area, with all Labels listed under it. After this area is the Remove label area, with all existing labels under it, in a list. Screenshot of the open More Actions combo box.
Creating a Gmail Label (folder) Let s say the four (4) Labels that already exist in Gmail do not meet your organizational needs. You can create your own Label(s) and place emails in the areas. Move to the Edit labels link and tap the Enter Key one time, or tap Enter on it from your links list. A table/form area appears with all current Labels listed as links, with an edit box to the right of each label, and a rename and a remove button to the right of the edit box. At the bottom of this table/form is a Create a new label edit box (form field). Move to this edit box, type a name for the Label you want to create, tap the Tab Key one time to move to the Create button, and then tap the spacebar one time to create the new Label. Screenshot of the word Homework written in the Create a new label edit box.
Screenshot of the Labels area on the main page of Gmail. The Homework Label is now on the list and can be accessed as a link. You can now open an email and use the More Actions combo box to attach your new label to it. Remember, if you email already has a Label, you will have to remove the current Label before you can place your new label on the email.
We are now going to add our new Label Homework to selected emails in the Inbox. First, we remove the label already given to each email, using the More Actions combo box. Next, we move to the table where the emails are located and use the spacebar to check the checkbox before each of the emails we want to Label. Next, we go back to the More Actions combo box, open it, move down to the Homework Label, tap the Tab Key one time, and then tap the spacebar on the Go button. The Label Homework has been added to each email that we checked. Screenshot of emails checked, the More Actions combo box opened, and the Homework menu item highlighted.
We can go to the table in the Inbox and hear or see that our marked emails are still there, but with a difference. Each of the emails that we checked and added the Homework label to, now have the word Homework just before the link that opens the marked email. Screenshot of Gmail Inbox with emails marked with the Homework Label.
We can go to the Homework link in the Labels area of the main Gmail page, tap the Enter Key one time to open it, and find that our Homework labeled emails are also shown there. These emails are shown in a table, therefore, you can use the letter t to move to the table, and then navigate through the emails in this area. Screenshot of the Homework Label area in Gmail.
Deleting Emails As time goes by you will begin to have many emails in your Gmail Inbox. There will be many that you do not need to keep. For example, if a friend sends you an email and wishes you a happy birthday, you do not need to keep this forever. Delete it! There are a few ways to delete email in Gmail. One quick method is to go to the Inbox table, and tap the spacebar on the checkbox of each email you want to delete. Next, move to the Delete button and tap the spacebar one time. Another method is to move to the Delete button from within an open email, and tap the spacebar one time to delete that email. The emails that you marked will be deleted and placed in the Trash folder. You can move to the Trash link, tap Enter to open it, and see the items you have deleted. You will find a button that says Delete Forever, a button that says Move to Inbox, and the More Actions combo box. If you check the checkboxes beside and use the Delete Forever button, the emails will be permanently deleted. If you check the checkboxes for the emails and use the Move to Inbox button, the emails will be taken from the Trash area and placed back into your Inbox. Screenshot of the Trash folder in Gmail.
Spam Spam can be like Junk Mail, or even email that can be dangerous to your computer. If you do not know the sender of an email and the title appears suspicious, check the checkbox to the left of the email, move to the Report Spam button and tap the spacebar one time to mark this email and place it in the Spam folder. You can later move into this folder to do things like Delete the emails or indicate the email you check is not spam-- Spam is a link on the Gmail main page. There is a Delete Forever and a Not Spam button. You can use the first one to permanently delete the suspicious email, and the second one to indicate that this email is not spam. There is also the More Actions combo box and the Go button. Screenshot of the Spam folder in Gmail.
Contacts You can use the Contacts area of Gmail to store a person s name, email address, phone number, and other necessary contact information. You will probably have to switch you Gmail view from basic HTML to the Standard view. In the basic HTML view the form does not always appear for recording the person s information. Switch to Standard view by moving to that link and tap the Enter Key one time. Next, Move to the Contacts link and tap the Enter Key one time. At the time of this writing there are issues with accessibility in the Contacts area of Gmail. In the Standard view, the graphical item for Create New Contact does now always work correctly you might be placed in a form where you invite friends to chat. At least for now, you will need assistance when adding a Contact. At this time the New Contact link is not working correctly, but that does not mean that it will not work in the future. Keep checking to see if this has been repaired. When a Contact form is brought up, you should be able to Tab through the form fields and type in the requested information. Information in a Contacts form will include the name of the person, email address, phone, and address. You will encounter form fields (edit boxes), combo boxes, and the Save and Cancel buttons. Screenshot of Contacts form in Gmail.
Keyboard Shortcuts for Gmail For a full list of keyboard shortcuts for Gmail, go to the following link: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=6594 Screenshot of keyboard shortcuts for Gmail web page.
Gmail Settings You can control how Gmail behaves in the Settings screens of Gmail. Move to the Settings link and tap the Enter Key one time. Tab down this screen to make any necessary changes you will possibly need to experiment, or the advice of a seasoned user of Gmail type services. There is one radio button that you do want to check (by tapping the spacebar) it is the radio button titled Keyboard shortcuts on. The opening tab of Settings is titled General. Going from left to right the tabs are General, Accounts and Import, Labels, Filters, Forwarding and POP/IMAP, Chat, Web Clips, Labs, Offline, Themes. Each of these tabs is a link that you can tap Enter on to open. There will be a Save Changes, and a Cancel button at the bottom of each of the Gmail Settings screens. Screenshot of General tab on the Gmail Settings screen.
Summary In this chapter we covered Gmail. This is a free service that can be accessed from any computer connected to the internet. There are many other email providers, and each of them have a slightly different approach to sign up and usage the common commands you know how to use to access a web page, and the concepts taught in this chapter will apply to many other email vendors while not the same, many of the approaches you use will be like the ones used for Gmail. For example, moving to links, tables, buttons, form fields, and so on, are all common key command types of items. Know your screenreader key commands well for the internet to make this a good experience. There are going to be times when you must ask for help all of your best efforts can come up short. Remember: Log off of your email when you are finished, or other people will be able to access it this is especially true on public computers such as those found at the local library.